The Only Exception
by 4ugustuswaters
Summary: AU. Ally Dawson went through a lot just trying to get to her senior year. She's been played, used, and left alone. She's made up her mind about how she feels towards love and relationships. But then she meets Austin Moon. Can he change her mind?
1. Chapter 1

_ It was the first day of the first grade. I was beyond nervous. At six years old, I was already entirely too self conscious for my own good. _  
_ It wasn't just my first day of first grade, either. It was my first day in this entire city. East Side Elementary School. Rural area of Annapolis, Maryland. There were currently 400 students enrolled in this school._

_ What if I didn't make any friends? I thought to myself, as my small legs carried the rest of me to my new bus stop. What if they thought I was weird? Or that I smelled funny? Or that my accent was strange?_

_ All I knew for sure was that I sure did miss the familiarity of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. _

_ When my mother told me the first part of the bad news - that she and my father were splitting up - I was completely devastated. I loved my daddy. He was my best friend in the whole world. He was always there for me when I couldn't spell a word or ride my bike or when I had a nightmare. And now he was just going to leave?_

_ Then the second part of the bad news dropped - my mom and I were moving to some city in Maryland, leaving my dad 1,178 miles behind. Seventeen hours away._

_ I begged and pleaded my mom to stay with my dad. Surely was there was something I could to fix it, right? She declined my offers and requests, saying some things just had to happen in life. _

_ I then begged and pleaded for us to stay in Louisiana. We could move to New Orleans, too. Mama always loved New Orleans. I just didn't want to leave Daddy in a different state on the other side of the country._

_ I stood at the bus stop for a good 10 minutes until the large, yellow vehicle came chugging along and halted directly in front of me._

_ The doors eased open, revealing a rather plump woman who was probably about my mother's age. The woman smiled at me. "You must be Alyson." When I slowly nodded my head, my eyes wide with a little fear, she continued speaking. "Welcome to Maryland, Alyson. Come on up, honey. Don't be scared!" _

_ I knew she was just trying to make me feel better, but her sudden niceness was a little frightening. I climbed up the stairs, my nerves still not settling down. I reached the tippy top of the stairs only to be faced with a sea of people. Most of them already had friends that they were talking to. Some looked like they were in the first grade, too. Some looked like little kids. And some were even big kids._

_ I saw that the very first seat was free, so I plopped my butt down on the cold leather, taking my purple bookbag off and setting it in my lap._

_ "So, where are you from, Alyson?" the bus driver asked, not taking her eyes off of the blacktop road in front of us._

_ "Baton Rouge..." I said quietly, scared to speak up. "You can call me Ally, too..."_

_ "Oh, I've been there before. It sure is pretty there. And okay. I'm Ms. Abby, by the way," she finally introduced herself by name, smiling in my direction._

_ "Oh," was all I said in reply, not really sure what to say._

_ The rest of the bus ride was silent, for me, at least. It took about another 10 minutes until we reached my new school. Boy, I thought the school bus had lots of kids..._

_ As soon as the bus halted, I slung my bookbag around my back and bolted out of seat. "Bye, Ms. Abby," I smiled politely, sprinting off of the bus, almost tripping down the stairs._

_ "Bye, Ally. Have a good first day!" she called after me, as I pushed past the sea of students, who all seemed so excited to see their friends. _

_ A few minutes later, a bell rang really loud and everyone started scurrying inside the building, shoving me aside. _

_ I didn't know where to go, but I remembered Mama saying that my teacher's name was Ms. Traci. I wasn't sure how that was supposed to help me, because I had never seen this lady in my entire life, but I figured it was better than nothing._

_ ***_  
_ Eventually, another nice lady showed me where Ms. Traci's room was and, of course, I was the very last person in the room, so everyone stared at me, especially since they had no clue who I was._

_ "Oh, you must be the new student this year, huh?" the lady, who I guessed was Ms. Traci, asked me. "You are..." she trailed off, looking at her roster, "Alyson Dawson, right?"_

_ I nodded, my brown hair smacking me in my round cheeks. I straightened out my new white polo that I had just gotten a week ago and my new jean shorts, feeling nervous. "Yes. I am. You can call me Ally, though."_

_ "Well, it's nice to meet you, Ally. I'm Ms. Traci. Welcome to the first grade," she smiled big at me, showing all of her white teeth. "You may sit right next to Ethan," she pointed to a blonde boy who I guessed was Ethan._

_ I blushed a little bit, making my way to the empty seat. _

_ "Hi," Ethan smiled when I sat down. When I waved back, he spoke again. "You're really pretty."_

_ "Thanks." I blush some more._

_ "Is it okay if we're best friends?" he questioned me._

_ I didn't know how to respond. Is that how making friends worked? "Well, sure. I guess that's okay," the words came out before I could stop them._

_ "Good," Ethan beamed over at me, pushing his messy, brunette hair out of his face. "Best friends forever."_

The friendship between Ethan and I had been ideal at the very beginning. We did everything together. Neither of us needed any other friends, because we had each other. And that was all that we really needed. Right? Wrong.

_ We were sitting on the big, yellow slide on the playground and I was listening to Ethan tell me some dumb story about how his dad ran over a log and somehow a duck came into the situation and then something about his grandpa or something._

_ "And then the duck just walked into my grandpa's house and he wouldn't stop quacking for hours!" Ethan exclaimed, excitedly telling me the tale._

_ I began laughing at the conclusion of the story. Six year old me thought ducks and old people were hilarious, I guess._

_ As I finished laughing and pulled myself together, Ethan cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at me. "Your teeth are really crooked when you smile," he pointed out._

_ "What?" I asked, my hand self-consciously flying to cover my mouth._

_ "They're really crooked. Like, it's weird," he repeated his observation._

To this day, I'm not sure if Ethan had first said the statement to be mean or if he was just letting me know. But what I do know is that that had been the downfall to our friendship and that comment would be something he would somehow never forget and would bring up during another important moment in our friendship.

Now I'm not entirely sure what Ethan's definition of "forever" was and perhaps, I should have asked him that when we were six, but, silly me, I didn't think I would need a clarification. But, alas, I learned the hard way, much like usual. Ethan's definition of "forever" was very different from mine.

_ It was the finally last day of eigth grade. It was lunch time and everyone was bustling with excitement about family vacation plans for the summer and how excited they were about finally being able to be in high school._

_ "Hi, Ethan," I smiled, walking over to my best friend, taking the empty seat between Ethan and a black haired boy that I didn't know._

_ He was sitting around a couple of boys I didn't know and a boy named Dallas. "Hey... Ally..." Ethan said, awkwardly, while his friends giggled._

_ "What is she doing over here?" one of the unknown boys interrogated Ethan, glaring at me._

_ "Crooked Teeth Dawson is here, guys," Dallas commented, laughing at me right in front of my face._

_ At this comment, I looked over at Ethan, awaiting an explanation, but he gave none. I thought the crooked teeth comment was just something he had noticed one day when we were six. Not something he talked about with his friends when we were thirteen._

_ "Yeah, Ally. Didn't Ethan tell you they were crooked in, like, first grade? Go to a dentist or something," another unknown boy with red hair laughed loud._

_ I felt the blood rush to my cheeks, feeling embarrassed. "They're not that crooked..." I tried to defend myself._

_ "Yeah, Ally, they kind of are," Ethan finally spoke, laughing at himself a tiny bit. "I told you when we were six that they were. You should have told your mom or something."_

_ "Oh," was all I said._

_ I shrunk into my body as the boys around me held their conversations, talking of summer plans and plans for high school._

_ "I'm so jealous of you guys. My family's not doing anything this summer," Ethan sighed heavily, catching my attention._

_ "Ethan, did you forget or something?" I finally spoke up. "You're coming with me to spend Fourth of July with my dad in Louisiana."_

_ Ethan inhaled heavily, turning to face me, his body stiff. "Listen, Ally. Als," his small, ten year old body seemed so much bigger than mine as he looked at me. "I'm not going to Louisiana with you."_

_ "Why not?"_

_ "Well..."_

_ "He doesn't like you," Dallas laughed, making me feel about two feet tall in my plastic, blue seat. "And he probably doesn't want to go spend his summer," he cleared his throat, "going fishin' down in them swamps," he laughed, faking a Southern accent. A terrible one, I might add._

_ "I-" before I could finish my sentence, the boy with dark black hair tipped his lunch tray right onto my lap._

_ "Now you have gross teeth and gross clothes," the boy remarked, snorting with laughter, leaning over me to high five Ethan._

_ Ethan, too, was laughing at me, along with the rest of his friends. "You should clean that up, Ally."_

_ "I hate you," I muttered under my breath, desperately trying to hold in the tears that were threatening to spill out of my brown eyes._

_ "What was that, Dawson? I was really distracted by all the soup on your shirt," Dallas laughed loudly, high fiving a boy sitting next to him._

_ "I said, I hate you. All of you," I pushed my unfinished tray forward and got up and ran out of the cafeteria, the tears streaming down my red cheeks._

I don't know how long Ethan had planned to stop being my friend, or if he had ever really planned it at all. I don't know what I did in the seven years that we were best friends that made him turn on me so quickly.

What I do know is that that had been just the start of what turned out to be three and a half years of Hell.


	2. Chapter 2

My sophomore year of high school was very strange, I suppose. I had went in from a very, very hectic freshman year and I swore to myself that I would not let this year be about a boy or about love. I would go in determined and ready to ace every class.

During freshman year, I had not really acquired any friends. I was thought to be a nobody, in all honesty. Ethan had dropped me and since he had, for some unknown reason, become popular over the summer, I was the outcast to just about every clique that East Side High School had to offer.

During freshman year, I had given my all to a boy who had inevitably changed his mind about me. He was a lot of firsts for me, which is what I think made the wound harder to heal. As soon as he got what he had wanted from the start, though, he had up and left. Just like that.  
And as it turns out, he was put up to it by Ethan. Ethan had, in the course of a school year, decided that I was practically scum. I meant no more to him than the gum on the bottom of his sneakers did.

And, of course, after the entire ordeal had happened, Ethan and the boy told everything but all the things I had done while with this boy. And oh, boy, did I look like a joke or what?

Despite swearing off love and boys for the duration of my sophomore year, though, I had inevitably found myself falling in love with a certain boy I had met in my AP Chemistry class.

_ It was time for second period. AP Chemistry. I inwardly groaned. I hated chemistry. I hated AP. I hated a lot of things, actually, but those two were definitely in the top five._

_ It was the second week of my sophomore year. So far, steering clear of boys and crushes and love and dates had been pretty swell._

_ After the mess I had created during freshman year with a certain boy I had met, I figured staying single and away from any kind of relationship was probably what was best for the time being._

_ I walked into the classroom, scurrying along to my lab table. I sighed heavily. This class would be the death of me and I was sure of it. _

_ I began staring intensely at the beakers in front of me, thinking of differents books I could read this year or different clubs I could join. I just wanted something that could possibly gain me a friend. Maybe someone could see me reading a book that they also enjoyed and begin talking to me about it. Or maybe I'd join French Club and someone in there would think I spoke French nicely and they would befriend me. I didn't particularly care what way I made a friend. I just wanted one so bad. I. Was. Desperate._

_ I heard the stool next to me move, breaking my trance. I glanced over next to me, seeing a boy who seemed to be fairly tall, despite the fact he was sitting down. He had short, dark, wavy hair that sat perfectly on his head. He had the bluest eyes and a permanent smile etched on his face. He was garbed in dark skinny jeans, sneakers and a neon green polo shirt._

_ "Hello," he finally spoke, smiling at me, staring right into my eyes. "I'm Jake Williams."_

_ "Hi," I smiled, with my mouth closed, of course. There was no sense in scaring off a new friend with my "gross teeth", right? "I'm Ally Dawson."_

_ "Well, Ally, I hope me sitting here is okay. I mean, there are plenty of seats still open, but I wanted to sit next to the prettiest girl in the room," he chuckled softly, winking at me._

_ Feeling the blood rush to my cheeks, I quickly remarked. "Are you new?" When he nodded, I continued. "That makes sense. You must have not heard about me yet."_

_ "What could I have possibly heard?"_

_ "There's a lot," I confessed. When he looked at me with a questionable look, I added, "It's a long story."_

_ "Well, since class is starting soon," Jake pointed to the Mrs. Norbrook, who had just entered the room, "you can explain it to me tonight."_

_ I raised a plucked brow at him in disbelief. "And what exactly is tonight?"_

_ "Our first date, maybe?" he grinned at me, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink._

_ I grinned. A date? "You just met me not even five minutes ago."_

_ "Yeah, well," Jake shrugged carelessly. "I don't want to wait too long, you know. Someone else might snatch you up, Ally."_

_ I laughed out loud at his accusation. "I don't think you'd have to worry about that. But, yeah, I'll go on this date with you."_

_ "Good."_

This one date with Jake had stemmed into two dates, then three dates, and suddenly it was a weekly thing. We went on dates every Friday night and we hung out all day Saturday.

I learned a lot of things while I was going on dates - was this technically dating? - with Jake.

I learned that he was sixteen years old and a junior. He thought sports were dumb and didn't like summer. He preferred winter over spring and hot chocolate over coffee. He thought chemistry was dumb and thoroughly enjoyed physics. He wanted to attend University of Baltimore and major in Computer Engineering.

During these dates, I came to terms that, even though I had sworn off love and relationships, maybe Jake was an exception to this.

But, just like most things that had happened to me since the eighth grade, there was, indeed, a catch to dating Jake.

And maybe that catch wasn't really a catch at all. It was just something he had technically lied about and something he might have, possibly forgotten to mention.

Jake actually wasn't interested me at all and the whole time I had been falling in love with someone who wasn't falling in love with me.

I_t had been six months since Jake had asked me on our first date and since our weekly dates had started. And it was another one of Jake and mine's Friday night dates. We were sitting in a corner at the local Starbucks; he was drinking hot chocolate and I was sipping a caramel latte. _

_ It was Christmastime and Starbucks had been decorated to impress customers. Joyous Christmas music was playing over the loud speakers and the employees were wearing glittery Santa hats._

_ Despite the cheery atmosphere, something was off between Jake and I. The entire week between us had been awkward and uncomfortable._

_ Jake took a large gulp of his drink before looking at me. "So, Ally..."_

_ "So, Jake..." I nodded carefully, pushing my now long, brown hair out of my pale face._

_ "I think we should talk."_

_ "Shoot."_

_ "I think maybe these dates should... stop," he offered, his tone sounding as if he thought he was genuinely giving a helpful suggestion._

_ "What?" I nearly choked on my latte._

_ "Well, honestly, I asked you out on a first date because I thought that I might have been into you. In my defense, I thought you would be someone I was into, but-"_

_ "But you're not," I finished for him, setting down my cup._

_ "I'm sorry?"_

_ "You thought I was going to be someone you were interested in, but I'm not. You're not into me."_

_ "Ally, it's not as harsh as it sounds, I swear," he began trying to justify his actions. "I kept asking you on more dates because I kept feeling like something was there. Like maybe something was going to change, but-"_

_ "But it didn't."_

_ "It's not like that, Alyson," Jake spoke, obviously growing irritated with me. "If you'd stop being so immature about it and actually let me speak, ma-"_

_ I cut him off again, this time out of spite. "I'm not being immature, Jacob. I'm literally just saying what you're going to tell me."_

_ "There you go again!" his voice rose a little. "Listen, Ally. Maybe something would have been there if I gave it more thought, but I'm not going to, because, fuck, these six months have been hell with you."_

_ "Excuse me?"_

_ "You heard me, Alyson. Hell. Absolute, complete hell. You're needy and you complain a lot and sometimes, you can be really annoying," Jake spat, slamming his hot chocolate down in front of him._

_ I felt the hot tears in my eyes. "Stop."_

_ "No, I'm not finished yet. You say 'I love you' so much that it's almost annoying. You're so immature, oh my god."_

_ "Stop it, Jake." A tear fell._

_ "I'm not done, Ally," he spoke harshly. "And I think it is so funny that sometimes, you don't know when I just don't want you around."_

_ My bottom lip quivered. This wasn't happened. It wasn't happening. Jake wasn't saying this to me. "You said you loved me."_

_ "Yeah, well, I lied, Ally. You should be thankful that you're a decent kisser, because God knows no one's going to want you for any of your other qualities."_

_ I stood up, picking my coffee up with me. "I hope you fucking choke," my voice cracked just as I took the lid off of my cup and poured the entire latte right onto Jake's lap. "I can't believe I ever thought you weren't an asshole."_

After mine and Jake's messy breakup, I feigned a sickness or two so that I could stay in bed and avoid all human contact.

My mother had caught on fairly quick once she realized that Jake hadn't been over on a Saturday or I hadn't been out on Friday night two weeks in a row. And I'm very thankful she didn't question anything about it.

For a week and a half, I stayed in bed. I cried. I cried a little more. And then a lot more. I stared at the ceiling when I was all out of tears and I waited until I was full of them again.

Now, this, I had said to myself, was the last time I let a boy mean so muchto me.


	3. Chapter 3

After Jake and I broke up, I had sworn off love... for the remainder of my sophomore year. (I was hoping I would get good at taking my own word seriously soon.)

Junior year, I was a lot more relaxed towards love and boys and crushes and dates. I kissed a lot of boys and I fucked around a lot, but I was never serious enough with a boy so that they could hurt me.

And there was a boy named Alex who I met in the eleventh grade and he was so desperate to get me to open up. He wanted to love me so badly and I so badly wanted to love him in return, but I could not. I could not open up to someone. I couldn't love someone. Opening up and loving was giving someone full permission to fuck you over. Giving them permission to hurt you badly. I pushed Alex far, far away. I pushed far enough away to where I never saw him anymore. I wasn't even completely sure that he still attended my high school.

I felt terrible for closing myself shut so tightly, when all Alex wanted to do was fix what had been broken in the past.

Alex was everything that I had imagined a boy should be like. He was so kind to me and so gentle when I pushed. He did not hate me for my actions and I was so thankful for that. He stilled attempted to check up on me from time to time, using Facebook or his cell phone to contact me. Never in person.

During the first half of my senior year, though, I was a complete and total mess.

I partied a lot. I smoked a lot. I drank a lot. I had a lot of sex.

_"Ally!" a boy who I had met at another party but did not remembered, I assumed, yelled at me when I entered the large house._

_ It was maybe my fifth party of the month and it was only the 16th day of October. That wasn't so bad considering my usual amounts of parties, right?_

_ "Hey!" I yelled back at him, as he embraced me in a hug, his hands lingering on my hips for much too long._

_ The music was too loud. The smell of all the alcohol was terrible. _

_ In all reality, I hated parties. I hated them a lot. But, when I drank or when I smoked, I didn't really think about Ethan and his friends. I didn't think about Jake. I didn't think about the boy from freshman year. I didn't think about the boy I pushed so far away in the eleventh grade. All I thought about how much fun being wasted was._

_ "It's me, Zack," the boy introduced himself. "I've heard a lot about you, Dawson" he smirked at me, immediately telling me what he had heard._

_ I nodded, not sure what exactly he wanted me to say. But I had gotten good at that. At parties, no one really cared what you had to say. They just wanted you to agree with them._

_ "Wanna dance?" he asked, almost screaming in my ear. As I nodded, he pulled me towards the large sea of people, who were also dancing. He pulled me towards him, holding onto my hips, this time, his hands stayed there._

_ I felt his hips grinding into me and I gave in. Zack was attractive and I was here to have fun, was I not?_

_ After excruciatingly long minutes of dancing, I finally leaned in and pushed my lips onto Zack's, just as he immediately returned the gesture._

_ His lips tasted of alcohol and mints. A strange combination, but nice, nonetheless. He bit my lip, pulling me closer by the hips._

_ Pulling away, I smirked at him. "I kind of want a drink. Do you want to come with me?"_

_ He nodded vigorously, pulling me into the direction of the kitchen._

I don't remember much of what happened after we had gone into the kitchen. I remember downing shot after shot. Then I remember myself drinking some kind of fruity drink straight out of the bottle. And most things after that are all a blur, except, of course, the inevitable downside to my night.

_I took another sip of the pink drink, not entirely sure what it was, but it was so good and it burned so bad as it slid down my throat that I didn't care._

_ But just as my lips touched the tip of bottle, I felt it all coming back up. "Oh, fuck," I mumbled, as I began to see black spots in my vision._

_ This was a reaction I never got often, but it had happened. And I knew what was going to happen. _

_ "You okay, Ally?" Zack interrogated, laughing drunkenly. "You look like shit, Ally," he added, while I was close to hurling my internal organs out._

_ "I'm gonna be sick," I mumbled, my words almost incoherent._

_ And just as I had predicted, I vomited all over the floor in front of Zack, myself, and his two friends who had been hanging all over each other all night._

_ I heard Zack let out a sound of digust and his two friends giggling at me. I was a joke and an embarrassment to myself and to anyone associated with me._

_ "Dude, that's fuckin' gross," Zack confessed, slightly pushing me out of the way of the door as I continued to vomit right on the floor of his kitchen._

_ After that, I passed out for however long and I woke up next to a bush in the front lawn with my phone placed on my chest._

_ The music was loud and all the lights were still on. The party was still happening and I was passed out by a bush. Sweet._

_ I picked my phone up off of my chest and sat up._

_ 2 Missed Calls. 4 Unread Messages._

_ The missed calls were from my mother as well as three of the text messages._

_ One text was from Zack. I was a little confused as to when he got my number, but I assumed I was saved into his phone during some other party when I was drunk and he wanted a number for a future booty call._

_ I opened the text message, the bright light from my phone making my headache worse._

_ "People always said you were a joke. I guess I just gave you the upperhand. Have fun being alone."_

_ I felt a sob begging to escape from my insides. _

_ People always said you were a joke._

_ People talked about me. People saw me at parties. People saw me drink. And they laughed with me during all of this, because they thought I was a joke._

And now it was currently the 17th day of January. The last half of my senior year.

After that night, I vowed that I was done with partying and drinking.

And I was officially done with love. And this time, I knew that I meant it. This time, there would be no exceptions. I wouldn't let anyone in.

I would go back to how I was with Alex. If anyone wanted in, I would shove them out. My head was complicated enough with just me in there. I didn't need another person in there, too.


End file.
